1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a brake disk for fastening to a rail vehicle wheel, where the brake disk comprises a plurality of elongated cooling elements on one side.
In this case, only one brake disk may be provided on one side of a wheel or two brake disks may be respectively provided, with one on each side of the wheel. Moreover, a plurality of concentric brake disks on one or on both sides of the wheel is conceivable, because the brake disks have a generally circular shape.
The wheel in rail vehicles is generally configured as a solid wheel, i.e., a disk wheel. In rail vehicles, the wheel body comprises the wheel web and the wheel hub and the brake disk is generally fastened to the wheel web. The invention is not limited, however, to an application in solid wheels.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, in rail vehicles a plurality of braking systems is used and a brake control unit coordinates the interaction of all of the braking systems. The most important braking system in this case is the friction brake. This friction brake converts the kinetic energy of a rail vehicle into heat via two friction partners. The friction partners in high-speed trains are generally brake disks made of steel and brake linings made of sintered metal but other materials may also be used.
The brake disks in this case may be designed as wheel brake disks. The braking moment is transmitted from the brake disk to the wheel.
During a braking procedure, a very high level of power is introduced by friction into the brake disk in the form of heat and this heat must be subsequently dissipated because otherwise overheating of the friction partners may result.
Hitherto, this problem was solved by one side of the brake disk comprising cooling elements. These cooling elements are designed as radial cooling ribs and extend radially over the entire brake disk, as disclosed in DE 102008003923 A1. However, windage is produced by these cooling ribs, where the windage needs to be compensated for by greater driving power.
A drawback with the disclosed brake disk comprising the radial cooling ribs, therefore, is that the windage is reflected in an increased energy requirement during the forward motion of the associated train relative to trains comprising brake disks without cooling ribs.